New Plan For Old Fashion Island / Developer hopes to revive complex

Published 4:00 am, Saturday, August 3, 1996

When San Mateo's Fashion Island Shopping Center opened at the start of the last decade, its owners thought shoppers from San Francisco to the East Bay would charge in, credit cards in hand.

Built by one of the West's largest retail developers in a booming area, the center had four big department stores, dozens of smaller shops, a cinema and an ice rink. It seemed ideally located -- near the key crossroads of Highways 92 and 101 and just 15 minutes from the East Bay via the San Mateo Bridge -- and featured a distinctive Bullock's building with a tent-like roof that became a local curiosity.

Only New Coke fizzled faster. Fashion Island turned out to be one of the Bay Area's biggest retail flops.

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Now a new developer hopes to revive the troubled site, beginning by tearing everything down except the ice rink. Neither fashionable nor an island, the center will have a new name: Bridgepointe.

The $250 million to $300 million development also would have new stores, including such retail powerhouses as Home Depot, Target, Toys R Us, Office Depot, Sportmart, Linens 'n Things and Computer City. All have signed letters of intent, said Michael Anderson, project manager.

The stores could go up next to five 6-story office buildings and a first-class hotel under a plan favored by developer Peter Pau. Planning commissioners and the public will get a chance to sound off on the project August 26 at the first of several public hearings.

A San Mateo-based developer, Pau witnessed Fashion Island's failure and doesn't plan on repeating his predecessor's mistakes. The biggest one, he said, was trying to compete with San Mateo's other regional mall, Hillsdale.

"Fashion Island was the wrong product at the wrong time. It tried to be another Hillsdale but had second-class tenants," he said. "We're trying a totally different form of retailing."

Anderson is quick to point out that much has changed since Fashion Island opened in 1981, with Montgomery Ward, JC Penney, Liberty House and Bullock's as anchors. Bridgepointe's stores won't be designed to attract shoppers from throughout the Bay Area. Another plus: Freeway access has improved. Pau plans to make it easy to get in and out of the center, by doing away with the mile-long loop road that frustrated many shoppers. Bridgepointe also will have signs along Highway 92, where 100,000 cars a day speed by.

At 75 acres, the site is considered a gem, one of the largest tracts of developable land left on the Peninsula. NCC-Sand Hill II, Pau's company, won a bidding war last year and paid a total of $40 million for the entire site.

While the retail side is all but anchored, a dizzying nine development scenarios have been submitted to city officials for the rest of the site.

In addition to a row of stores going back to Highway 92 and a new 100,000-square-foot Home Depot, Pau wants a 140-room hotel, 840,000 square feet of office space in a campus-type setting, and two five-story parking garages.

The ice rink and a video arcade would be remodeled, with glass walls and a lighthouse-style beacon to keep with the water-oriented theme of Foster City and the Mariner's Island neighborhood.

What's ultimately built will depend on financing, market demand and what the city wants.

Variations include building up to 975 apartments or condominiums instead of the offices or developing half that site with offices and the other half with housing. Another variation has a multiscreen movie theater being built in place of the Home Depot.

In addition to boosting property taxes, the retail portion is expected to generate about $1.4 million in annual sales tax revenue for San Mateo. But the promise of money alone hasn't helped plans sail through City Hall.

Pau would like to begin work on the retail side immediately, but city officials are requiring that the whole project be considered at the same time. While he waits for the plans to weave through the approval process, he says he is losing about $15,000 a day to interest and in income, and the city is losing several thousand dollars a day as well in lost tax revenue.

One hurdle is resolving neighbors' concerns. They worry that shoppers and office workers will jam streets, offices will loom over the area, and the stores will look too boxy.

Robert Smith, who lives a few blocks from the center, told the city in a letter that the stores would look like a "sterile warehouse district of San Mateo."

"Such an appearance, if it were allowed to occur, could be very detrimental to property values," Smith wrote.

The office park site has generated the greatest amount of controversy.

The initiative, however, failed to define "substantial," leaving it up to city officials, residents and the developer to set a precedent. Bridgepointe -- with planned offices of up to 75 feet high -- is the first to test the limits. City officials rejected an offer of $250,000 from Sobrato Development Corp. of Cupertino, which would build the offices, pending more study.

Ironically, it was Pau's plan to build office towers downtown that spurred the building-heights initiative that is now the subject of how much should be paid.

Planning Commissioner Maxine Terner, who helped lead the 1991 initiative drive, said the intent was for a developer to improve the area near highrises to provide benefits for neighbors. Ideas being discussed range from a new park to a storm water pump station.

Some community members have also raised concerns that Bridgepointe could siphon shoppers away from downtown.

Though few would shed tears if the old mall -- now boarded up to ward off vandalism -- is torn down, the center's expansive parking lot is another matter. With so few cars around, it is used by a farmer's market, dog trainers, parents teaching their teenagers how to drive, model-car buffs and others. The developer has said the popular farmer's market probably won't be back, which has upset local shoppers.

Bridgepointe is not the first proposal to remake Fashion Island. Three years ago, an East Coast developer of discount malls had talks with city officials and the then- owners, who bought out the leases of the few remaining stores. The company ultimately backed out for undisclosed reasons.

From the beginning, Fashion Island had more promise than customers. But a combination of factors spelled doom. Road work on Highway 92 made access difficult, and shoppers complained of getting lost in a maze of on-ramps and off-ramps. Nearby Hillsdale took the threat from upstart Fashion Island seriously -- it remodeled and landed one of Northern California's first Nordstrom stores.

The original developer, Hahn Co., also became embroiled in lawsuits with partners when the mall started to founder and anchors Liberty House and Bullock's shut in the mid-1980s.

Pau said he thinks he has a winner because the center would not rely solely on retailing and, in any case, the lineup of big-name stores would be a magnet for shoppers.

'You put a Home Depot someplace, and people are going to find it," he said.

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